Mira Schendel: Sarrafos and Black and White Works at Hauser & Wirth

Organized with Olivier Renaud-Clément, this exhibition brings together a group of paintings from Mira Schendel’s Sarrafo (1987) and Brancos e Pretos (1985 – 1987) series, two major bodies of work from the last decade of her life, accompanied by related drawings and works on paper. One of the most significant artists working in South America in the second half of the twentieth century, Schendel emigrated to Brazil in 1949, settling permanently in São Paulo by 1953. Although she never identified as a Brazilian Concretist or Neo- Concretist, Schendel contributed to the dialogues of these prevalent art movements of the time and ultimately emerged as a distinct voice, successfully crafting a unique visual language that conveyed her desire to transcend the material and technical limitations of artmaking. Cerebral and poetically profound, Schendel’s final series, Sarrafo, reconciled her painting and sculpture practices, encapsulating an oeuvre that explored notions of temporality and transience.